Note: Javascript is disabled or is not supported by your browser. For this reason, some items on this page will be unavailable. For more information about this message, please visit this page:
About CDC.gov

New opportunities bring new challenges -- Ensuring continued public health capacity at CDC -- Expanding molecular technologies and bioinformatics capacities at CDC

Now and into the future.

Advances in science and technology aimed at identifying the complete genetic makeup of microorganisms are ushering in a new era for controlling infectious threats. By using genetic sequencing to examine infectious pathogens, these technologies are on the verge of revolutionizing our ability to diagnose infectious diseases, investigate and control outbreaks, understand transmission patterns, develop and target vaccines, and determine antimicrobial resistance—all with increased timeliness and accuracy and decreased costs. Recent reports have highlighted early efforts on the use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) technologies in investigating outbreaks of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitalized patients at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and in the United Kingdom, an outbreak of foodborne disease in Europe, and an outbreak of tuberculosis in Canada. Termed “genomic epidemiology,” this approach to infectious disease control was named one of the six “Areas to Watch in 2012” by the journal Science on the basis of its transformative potential in “determining quickly where newly emerging diseases come from, whether microbes are resistant to antibiotics, and how they are moving through a population.”

Advances in science and technology aimed at identifying the complete genetic makeup of microorganisms are ushering in a new era for controlling infectious threats. By using genetic sequencing to examine infectious pathogens, these technologies are on...

CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) protects people in the United States and around the globe from emerging (new) and zoonotic (spread between people and animals) infectious diseases. NCEZID scientists save ...

CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) protects people in the United States and around the globe from emerging (new) and zoonotic (spread between people and animals) infectious diseases. NCEZID scientists save ...